BOSTON — Boston city crews have completed 7,202 street lighting upgrades in 2026, nearly triple the 2,483 finished in all of 2025 and the most in a single year since 2016, Mayor Michelle Wu's office said Monday.

The city's Street Lighting Division did the work at about one-third the cost of outside contractors, the mayor's office said, covering major transportation corridors, business districts and residential streets. Upgrades have been made in every Boston neighborhood, according to the city.

Wu marked the milestone Monday with residents, city officials and Public Works staff. "Boston is upgrading more light fixtures throughout every neighborhood on a faster replacement schedule and with lower costs," she said.

The city has about 68,000 electric streetlights and 2,800 gas lights. It has shortened its replacement schedule from 15 years to 10 years, and the upgrades are part of a shift to LED lights that can be adjusted one by one for brightness and timing, which the city said also limits light pollution.

City officials tied the work to public safety, saying better lighting in key corridors helps prevent nighttime crashes and violence. Isaac Yablo, director of the Boston Public Health Commission's Office of Violence Prevention, said investment in street lighting helps "keep our residents safe and help prevent violence."

The division also handles more than 8,000 service requests a year submitted through Boston 311, responds around the clock to knocked-down light poles and strings lights on more than 50 holiday trees each winter, the city said.

Through a partnership with the electrical program at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, nine of the program's graduates have become full-time employees of the division, according to the city.

This brief was drafted by AI from a public agency or political press release and published by The New England Signal. Why we use AI for stories like this one.